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Ignore This PostIf you’re selling via the web and trade shows are something your grandfather told you about, ignore this post. If you’re in markets that still exhibit at them (semiconductors, communications, enterprise software, medical devices, etc.,) you know they’re expensive in time, dollars and resources.

I wrote this “Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters” memo as a board member after I saw our company at a trade show. My observation was that they had the “Going to Trade Shows” part down, they just needed to add the “Like it Matters.”

Setting Clear Trade Show ObjectivesThere’s no use going to a show if you don’t know why. Answers like, “because our competitors are there,” or “because it’s on our calendar,” or even “because I think we should,” don’t cut it. (Remember your department has a mission.) There’s a plethora of reasons why a company would want to exhibit at a show:

write sales orders

generate leads for future sales

research the competition

spot trends

generate awareness and visibility within the industry

build our mailing list with quality names

find better or cheaper suppliers

build rapport with current customers

get press

generate excitement around a new product introduction

get additional partners

recruit staff

The problem with this list is that every company can find at least five things they like on it. For a small company this is like throwing your tradeshow money on the floor. A company must pick the one or two top goals or nothing useful will happen.The number one reason a small company is going to a tradeshow is to generate awareness. As the company gets larger and a large professional sales organization kicks in, its second priority is to generate qualified leads. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t tertiary goals, but they are just that – not the top one or two.

Before you go to a trade show sales and marketing need to agree to measurable goals. Everything you do before, during, and after the show should be evaluated in terms of whether it contributes toward reaching these goals. While marketing can decide they are going to the show to generate awareness, marketing can’t decide they are going to a show to generate leads – unless the VP of Sales says that they believe those leads will be valuable and sales has a plan to follow up on those leads.

If sales doesn’t think the show is worth going to for the leads, and marketing isn’t going to generate awareness, remind me – why are you going to this show?

Generating AwarenessOwnership If your company is going to a show to a tradeshow to generate awareness, then marketing owns the show, and sales is there for support. Do not assign any sales people to the show who feel they “have something better to do,” 1) they might actually do (like closing an order) and, 2) bad sales attitudes are contagious.

BudgetA test for whether a show is worth going to generate awareness, is to total up the show budget. Then offer those budget dollars to the VP of Sales. They have a choice; they can tell you not to go to this show and they can use your show budget for anything they want in sales; or they can let you go to the show to use those dollars to create awareness for them. If the VP of Sales doesn’t think that generating end user awareness and ultimately demand for them is worthwhile, then one of you is an idiot. Hope it’s not you.

Once you know which show you’re going to and what your goals are, draw up a budget. Without a budget, costs can quickly spiral out of control (last minute impulse purchases to jazz up your booth, for example) and defeat your best laid plans. A rule of thumb is that your space costs represent about a quarter of your total show budget. So when you know what you’ll be paying for space rental, multiply it by four, for a rough idea of your expenses.

The MessageSitting around a conference room table brainstorming messages that might resonate with customers, or worse having a PR agency doing that for you, is a firing offense in a small company. You should be brainstorming messages with current and potential customers. Your messages should have been pre-tested with prospects and existing customers way before you go to a show.

Say it LoudAttendees are looking at hundreds of booths each screaming messages at them. Why are your messages going to stand out? Show-goers can’t sort through a pile of inarticulate or barely whispered thoughts. Pick just one or two key ideas that you want to get across at the show and train yourself and your staff to “stay on message”. Then that message needs to be translated into a theme for the booth, the staff and the show.

Then shout the messages out (virtually) at the top of your lungs. Visually, demo’s, wild colors, etc. If you think you are going to offend your customers or embarrass your engineering organization, get out of the marketing department. IBM doesn’t have to shout to get noticed, but you do. Design your graphics, pre-show promotion, literature and show directory advertising around your focused message and theme. However, scantly clad women, children and animals (in any combination) are still in bad taste.

Promotions attract booth trafficPromotions and give-away’s drive traffic to your booth. Offer a free bestselling book in your industry (can you have the author there to autograph it?); Hold a contest, (If you’re giving away a big prize make sure your most valuable prospect wins.) Have a loud product demo; give away pieces of candy; hire a masseuse and offer free back rubs. While the promotion needs to fit your company’s image and the demeanor of the attendees, I’ll tell you that I’d be giving away dating-service T-shirts at the bereaved widows’ convention.

Location, location, locationA small booth is no excuse for being stuck in the corner. Don’t tell me “that’s where they put all the small booths.” I know that, so why do I need you? Get yourself into the booth selection meetings and get to know the manager. Call often and early and try to upgrade your location. Shoot for a high-traffic location. Be sure to look at a floor plan before you choose your site. Foot traffic is heaviest in certain areas of a typical trade show floor. Look for locations near entrances, food concessions, rest rooms, seminar rooms, or close to major exhibitors. Try to avoid dead-end aisles, loading docks, obstructing columns, or other low-traffic regions.

Partners BoothsWhile your booth may be small, some of your potential or existing partners may have much larger ones, in much more visible locations. Figure out how to get your equipment into every other big booth we can. But it has to come with one of your people to talk about the product. If you tell me we can’t find any established exhibitor whose products or services complement ours to let us in, I question why you are going to this show.

Tradeshow SeminarsAlmost all tradeshows have conferences and seminar sessions; is your company keynoting any? Leading or speaking at any? No is the wrong answer. If there aren’t any that match your company, create some. You ought to know who the conference or seminar chairman is a year a head of time, and they certainly ought to know you. I can’t imagine your company going to a tradeshow to create awareness and not being a speaker. (That means neither can you.)

Preshow PublicityDoes your company have any new announcements to make at the show? Are you twittering your appearance at the show? Did you create a Facebook page for the show? Are you buying Google adwords and adsense for the show? Did you issue any press releases targeted at the trade publications and local papers that will be covering the show? Has the company talked to key industry analysts/press pre-show to ask them to stop by? Did the company send out direct mail (email or postcards) to potential or pre-registered attendees reminding them to stop by the booth? Do you have press kits for the show, (electronic and paper) and have you posted them on-line and dropped them by the physical and on-line press room?

Key InfluencersDoes the company have press/industry analysts scheduled for demos? Does the company have demos or dinners/lunch scheduled for key industry influencers? Is the company hosting/co-sponsoring some event? Why not?

Customer DiscoverySitting inside of your company you’ve made a whole bunch of assumptions about who your customers are and why they will buy. Now there are thousands of real live customers walking around the show floor with facts. You need to get those facts back inside our building. What are all the questions you’ve ever had about customers? What do they read? What other shows do they go to? How would they reach them? Have they ever heard of you? Do they believe your key messages? Do they believe the problem you are solving is important? Who would buy your product?

MeasurementHow do you measure success at a tradeshow where the goal was generating awareness? Ask the potential customers who actually came to your booth and call them after the show. Take all the leads you got at the show (yes you are collecting leads even though you’re at the show to generate awareness) and follow up. Ask them what they thought of your company/product before/after the show. What message did they take away? Did this help them to understand your company/product

Part 2 of the memo, to be posted tomorrow: using a trade show to generate leads. Plus tips on overall trade show strategy.

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[…] are many great articles that humble even the most prepared and proactive exhibitor (we love this post by Steve Blank), but we’re focussing here just on your display. A great trade show needs to blend the right […]